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McLean’s lawyer says he was driving 43 mph in an area that has a limit of 15 mph when school zone warning lights are flashing and 45 mph when they’re not. He argued that the lights were off, but police said in Rockland District Court on Thursday that they were on.

A judge lowered the fine from $515 to $400, and McLean immediately paid up.

McLean lives in nearby Camden, along Maine’s coast. He burst into popularity in 1971 with his hit “American Pie,” about the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959 — The Day the Music Died.